The present invention relates generally to interactive information retrieval. More particularly, the invention relates to a speech-enabled system for navigating through a menu structure of electronically stored information so that an optimal amount and proper content of information may be displayed to the user.
There is growing interest in expanding the reach of computer networks throughout the home. Home gateways are being developed to provide networking services, home automation and information access throughout the home. One of the problems associated with providing such access is information retrieval. Whereas large computer displays do a reasonably good job of displaying information in a convenient to use, well-organized format, many appliances and systems within the home do not have displays of this size or quality. Thus most consumer electronic products and appliances have heretofore been capable of displaying only simple messages and small quantities of information.
In the future, with the growth of home networks, it is anticipated that users will want to connect various consumer electronic products and home appliances to the home network, allowing such products and appliances to share data and interact with one another. In this regard, the home network may support communication over a variety of channels, including over existing telephone wiring or computer network wiring, as data signals superimposed upon the AC power lines, or as wireless communications using a variety of different technologies including spread spectrum radio frequency and bluetooth technology.
Once the home network is constructed and a variety of different electronic products and appliances are connected, users will undoubtedly wish to use their connected products and appliances as portals to the home network. The problem with this is that current technology provides a very cumbersome user interface, particularly where display size is small or of low quality. With current technology it can sometimes take a long time for information on a menu to be displayed to the user. Moreover, interacting with on-screen menu displays is cumbersome, particularly where mouse activity or keyboard operation must be performed in darkened rooms. Finally, the user interface screen may not be located in an ideal place for all members of the family, and there may be a limited number of such interfaces.
The present invention provides a speech-enabled system for filtering information and for navigating through complex menu structures with the assistance of one or more electronic activity guides. The system can be configured to present an optimal amount of information to the user for subsequent activity selection.
To deal with the limitations of conventional screen-based interfaces, the present invention uses speech recognition and natural language parsing to automatically filter the contents of the electronic activity guide, so that an optimal number of fine-tuned selections can be displayed to the user for subsequent selection by voice or through conventional pushbutton control or by other means.
The invention provides a fast and far less intrusive interface for a user in selecting a particular activity. Often it is possible to complete a request in a single sentence. In this case, there is no need for a display device, or no need to look at one if it is provided.
The invention makes it possible for any device connected to the network to serve as a portal for operating that device or any other device connected to the network. If the network is coupled through a gateway or other suitable connection to the Internet, then the Internet is also accessible through this portal.
The invention employs a speech recognition system having a parser for extracting semantic information from a user""s input speech. A data store stores a representation of one or more electronic activity guides. These guides have the capability of limiting the natural language dialog domain to a particular device, system or discourse. This makes the system far more accurate in interpreting the meaning associated with the user""s input speech. A natural language dialog module accesses the electronic activity guide or guides, interprets the meaning of the user""s input speech and provides appropriate information to the network to retrieve specific information from any of the devices connected to the network, or from the Internet if a connection thereto is provided. The natural language dialog module is also able to provide control commands and menu navigation commands to devices communicating over the network. Thus the invention gives the user a natural, speaking mode of obtaining information and controlling equipment, appliances, computers and other systems throughout the home.
By way of example, the user, about ready to make a shopping trip, might speak into a microphone associated with the refrigerator and ask, xe2x80x9cWhat can I make for dinner?xe2x80x9d The natural language dialog module would access the appropriate electronic activity guide (the one associated with the refrigerator) and then retrieve information that associates possible dinner menus with items in the refrigerator. The system would make suggestions about possible menus, alerting the user to ingredients that may need to be acquired. The user could then say, xe2x80x9cI think I will make chicken stew tonight. Please print me a shopping list.xe2x80x9d The system would then ascertain which items are not currently found in the refrigerator and would send a print job to the user""s computer for printing.
In one preferred implementation each appliance or other device communicating over the network has an associated electronic activity guide that conforms the dialog grammar to its particular domain. The natural language dialog module may be a shared across the network. When the user speaks into a microphone attached to or in proximity to an appliance or device communicating over the network, the natural language dialog module interprets the meaning of the input speech using the electronic activity guide, and thus the specific grammar, that is most appropriate to the input speech. The system chooses the best activity guide by identifying the grammar that gives the highest semantic recognition score. Thus, the user could stand in front of the refrigerator portal and ask the system to look up stock process on the Internet for playback over the refrigerator""s speaker using the system""s text-to-speech synthesizer. The natural language dialog module would interpret requests for stock prices using an electronic activity guide associated with the home gateway connected to the Internet, for example, even though the user entered the input speech through a microphone associated with or in proximity to the refrigerator.